Mac Studio M2 Max (64GB) as a private coding assistant
A freelancer working on client code ran a fully local stack for 3 months: Ollama + Qwen2.5-Coder-32B via Continue.dev, with Open WebUI for longer chats.
SoloCoding$3k+Sensitivity: High (client/confidential)
Hardware
| Item | Approx. price (as of 2026-10-16) | Buy |
|---|---|---|
| On sale −22% Apple Mac Studio M4 Max (14C CPU/32C GPU, 36GB, 512GB) - Apple Certified Refurbished (Apple Refurbished, related current offer) | $1,949.00 | Check price at Apple Refurbished → |
| On sale −17% Apple Mac Studio M4 Max (1TB) (Micro Center, related current offer) | $3,149.99 | Check price at Micro Center → |
| On sale −8% Apple Mac Studio M5 Max (18C CPU/32C GPU, 36GB, 512GB) (Amazon, related current offer) | $2,299.00 | Check price at Amazon → |
| Apple Mac Studio (M2 Max, 64GB RAM) | Not stated in source | Check price → |
Heads up: "Check price" links may be affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Source prices are as stated by the source. Retailer offers: prices checked 2026-10-17, may change. Some links may be affiliate links; we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This never changes what we list.
Software stack
- Ollama
- Continue.dev (VS Code)
- Open WebUI
Models used
- Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct (Q4_K_M, ~19GB)
Good at
- Inline autocomplete 'indistinguishable from Copilot for 80% of use cases' (200-400ms latency)
- Single-file refactors
- Documentation generation
Weak at
- Multi-file reasoning: 'Qwen loses the plot after file 2'
- Quality degrades past ~30K context
Rough total cost
Hardware price not stated in source. Author says 64GB RAM / 32B models is 'the sweet spot'.
Getting started
- Install Ollama on the Mac.
- Pull a coder model: ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:32b
- Install the Continue extension in VS Code and select Ollama as provider.
- Optionally run Open WebUI for longer chat sessions.
- Keep a cloud model for hard multi-file work if policy allows (the author's hybrid approach).
Source & credit
Reddit post: 'Ran Ollama + Qwen2.5-Coder as my daily coding agent' — r/LocalLLaMA
Summarized from the source; quotes are the source author's words. Check the original before buying.